Emerging Pattern in Utilizing Electronic Information Sources by Pharmacy Lecturers in Five Universities in Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis.

Abstract

This is a detailed comparative analysis of electronic information sources (EIS) utilized by pharmacy lecturers in South-South universities in Nigeria. The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent to which EIS are utilized among pharmacy lecturers in South-South Nigeria. The aim is to explore the emerging pattern of utilizing EIS and to identify critical factors influencing effective usage of EIS in order to assist the universities in planning and managing EIS for the benefit of faculty members. Survey research method was adopted in this study. The questionnaire was the instrument used to collect data by simple random sampling of pharmacists in the various universities. All the different categories of pharmacy lecturers were randomly selected for this study. Emerging pattern of EIS utilization indicates that majority of pharmacy lecturers rate EIS very  important and, their level of usage was high and they use EIS daily. They use diverse EIS especially WWW to perform different tasks of teaching and research. Chi square statistics indicates that there is no significant difference in most of the variables tested. However, academic qualification influenced the task performed by the lecturers and task performed influenced the utilization of EIS.